Channel 4 News

The COVID inquiry report into care homes criticised government failings, saying care homes were treated as an afterthought and that protecting hospitals came at the expense of care users and providers. It said hospital discharge was agreed without testing, adequate PPE or guidance, and that visiting restrictions caused profound harm. Baroness Hallett said ministers knew the sector was vulnerable but acted too late. Bereaved families and a care worker described their experiences. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the government was committed to learning lessons, and former health secretary Jeremy Hunt accepted social care had been a poor relation. The Ministry of Defence said RAF Typhoon jets would be deployed to defend Saudi Arabia against Houthi drone and missile attacks; Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said the missions would be defensive and protect Saudi cities and infrastructure. Police re-arrested a 25-year-old British-Iranian national and a 24-year-old British national on suspicion of aiding Iranian intelligence in connection with an incident at RAF Fairford, with counter-terror police saying Iranian state involvement was highly likely. Unemployment fell unexpectedly to 4.7% in the three months to August, down from a 5.2% peak, while vacancies fell to an estimated 691,000, the lowest since 2014 outside pandemic years. An ONS survey suggested smaller firms were cutting recruitment because of higher labour costs; the report also featured young people in Blackburn describing difficulty finding work, around a million young people not in education, employment or training, and the government saying it was working with industry to move people into jobs.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy finished talks with Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff in Norway and said Ukraine wanted peace and that Russia was choosing to continue killing. Russia bombarded Ukraine with missiles and drones, killing at least nine people and targeting energy infrastructure. The broadcast noted Trump remarks seen as pressure on Zelenskyy, said US intelligence for early warning was back online, and examined confusion over Starlink restrictions. Republicans were reported to be threatening to block Pentagon funding unless the White House got tougher on Russia. In the Russell Brand trial at Southwark Crown Court, the jury heard a third woman allege he raped her at his home in 2009 after a stand-up gig; another woman alleged an assault at Choice FM in the mid-2000s; and a former Channel 4 worker alleged he refused to continue a project unless she gave him a massage. Brand strenuously denies all allegations and says he has never engaged in anything non-consensual.

Google cloud services came back online after hours of disruption to banks, businesses and a UK government website. Google blamed a power event at a London data centre, sources said there was no evidence of nefarious activity, and a full incident report was expected; the outage affected Revolut customers and other banks, courts and the NHS app and highlighted reliance on a small number of US cloud providers. French police said they would keep a curfew in parts of Paris and deploy military forces and a large police presence at the weekend after unrest; Carrefour said riots and looting had created an unprecedented situation with costs in tens of millions of euros. A man was charged with dangerous driving causing serious injury after an attack on Australian MP Helen Haines, who was in critical condition after losing a leg; the suspect was widely named as Brendan Newgent, an environmental activist who had been friendly with her family. The BBC said it would close BBC3 and BBC Scotland as TV channels and Radio 4 Extra, move content online, cut around 100 news jobs and save £500m over two years; its director general said it aimed to reinvent the BBC for a changing world. Ahead of the 60th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster, which killed 144 people including 116 children, King Charles was due to join survivors and relatives; Viv Jones gave his first public interview, describing finding his nine-year-old brother Paul among the dead, and families attended a commemorative concert.